Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when considering the experience.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
